Category: Case Studies

Tampa-based Colwill Engineering smoothly combines Uponor’s new pipe prefabrication services with timely job-site deliveries from local distributor Winsupply to sharply reduce installation time and crew size on prestigious Society Orlando high-rise apartment construction project.

ORLANDO, FL — Prefabrication has become the name of the game in mechanical contracting. Nothing particularly new there — unless we’re talking who, besides the installing contractor, might actually be doing the prefab work.

BY BROOKE ROBERTS

When Jason Gaspard, owner and project manager at Select Mechanical Services, was looking to finish the basement of his Maple Grove, MN, home, he knew he wanted radiant heating in the space. He had heard about the new Uponor Xpress Trak radiant panel system and decided that was the best installation method for the job.

Developed by Uponor, this new solution takes the guesswork and freelancing out of piping installations. Each kit, which includes all the needed ProPEX^® fittings, adapters, valves, and rings, is delivered to the job site — one kit per room or apartment — along with a material list and an isometric layout for the installer to follow, helping to minimize mistakes and maximize efficiency.

BY JOHN O’REILLY

EDEN PRAIRIE, MINNESOTA — Among the many critical challenges facing a plumbing foreman on a multifamily job site is the need to maintain efficient and consistent installation methods across the entire project. This mandate applies as much or more to the rough-in plumbing as to the finishing trim: the larger the job, the bigger the challenge.

Veteran pipefitter and longtime PEX installer Justin Johnson chooses Wirsbo hePEX™ (radiant heating) and Uponor AquaPEX® (plumbing) to boost the health, comfort, and energy efficiency of his new home.

AFTON, MINNESOTA — Justin Johnson and his wife, Jessica, had been planning their “forever home” for five years when they decided in late 2019 that they were finally ready to begin construction. Johnson has worked as a union pipefitter in the plumbing and HVAC industries on a variety of commercial, industrial, and residential projects since the mid-1990s. Now, the 25-year industry veteran would have the opportunity to install many of the same comfort-enhancing and energy-efficient systems inside his new, 4,600-sq.-ft. home.

Hybrid snow-melt installation atop a 970-foot walkway joining two sides of Utah’s largest public university becomes first large-scale use of Uponor PP-RCT in North America. Radiant heating specialist Thermal Engineering threads 1,900 feet of PP-RCT through bridgeworks to feed 36,000 feet of PEX snow melt along the pedestrian bridge.

BY MICHAEL NICHOLSON

OREM, UTAH — Contractor Aron Frailey estimates he has installed as many as one thousand radiant snow-melt projects since entering the business right out of college nearly 20 years ago. The jobs have been many and varied — from high-end residential to large commercial. He even spent three weeks in Moscow in 2017 at the behest of the U.S. State Department, building a snow-melt system for the U.S. Embassy there — “although I couldn’t speak a lick of Russian.”

Circle Pines, Minnesota-based, injection-molding company more than doubles its vendor report-card score in only two years by aggressively boosting its performance in energy conservation, packaging materials, health and safety audits, and other areas.

BY JOHN O’REILLY

APPLE VALLEY, MINNESOTA — Few things in this world can be factually characterized as truly “unique” — as in “one of a kind,” “nothing like it anywhere else.” But for Eric Eichten, “unique” is an absolutely spot-on summation of the three-year-old Uponor Sustainability Report Card questionnaire process.

Five-story, 126,000-square-foot, LEED^® Gold building features numerous structural and mechanical innovations, including a thermally activated, bubble-deck slab, providing radiant cooling as well as radiant heating on six levels.

BY JOHN O’REILLY

IOWA CITY, IOWA — The Visual Arts Building (VAB) at the University of Iowa is a marvel of both aesthetic design and mechanical engineering. Six years in the making and completed in October 2016, the award-winning, 126,000 square-foot structure blends the artistry of the renowned Steven Holl Architects (New York) with an array of innovative mechanical systems that smoothly integrate with Holl’s aesthetics while meeting the numerous, industrial-like requirements of this challenging space.